On the recordOctober 3, 2013
43,000 El Pasoans are Federal employees. This is the fifth highest concentration of Federal employees in the Nation. Many of them work at Fort Bliss. Others are Border Patrol agents or customs officers at the busiest ports of entry in the country. All of them are facing uncertainty because they're being furloughed or working without pay. I have spoken to many of them over the past week, including Army officers who are worried about what this shutdown is doing to the morale of the soldiers they command and veterans employed at William Beaumont Army Medical Center who cannot go to work to care for our wounded warriors. A woman whose husband must go to work, but doesn't know when he will get paid provided this advice to us: Do your job, just as my husband has to do his. Mr. Speaker, the solution to this crisis is right before us. Bring the Senate-passed government funding bill to the floor. It will pass this House, and the government will be open tomorrow. Mr. Speaker, please put politics aside and do what is right. ____________________
